Stop Rewarding Losing!!

1) As we first opined nearly 5 years ago(see link beow), we Hate, with a capital H to rewarding of losing. Whether it be the 'loser point' or with respect to the NHL entry draft positioning. The former may in fact propel teams into the playoffs and eliminate some. New Jersey for instance in the current format is safely (8 pts) in the playoffs. However if there were no post Over time gimmicks (shootouts) deciding games they'd have a mere 70 pts or tied for 8th with several teams right behind them. For the record we feel there should ONLY be winner points. Two for regulation/OT/So wins. ZERO for ALL losses. Period. Of course the 'loser point' keeps the standings closer than they otherwise would be allowing Gary Bettman/NHL to stay they have good competition (parity). http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2007/03/stop-rewarding-of-losers.html

2) Our real hate for rewarding losing though has to do with draft positioning. Each year we'd see teams clearly out of the playoffs suddenly go into a prolonged tail spin/losing streaks solidifying their positioning into the Bottom 5. Many thought the "lottery" would curtail the situation we saw in 1984 when Pittsburgh and NJ "competed" to be worst and get a chance at drafting Mario Lemieux. Pittsburgh won that "race, and NJ had to settle for Kirk Muller at #2. The current format does not guarantee that teams' will get a particular pick, but it doesn't disincentivize teams from tanking. The bottom finisher still has a 49% chance of winning the lottery while the 2nd worst record has a mere 19% chance.

3) In a perfect world we'd see NO reward for finishing dead last. What should be done, and would make, in our opinion. for good TV is what we saw prior to the 2004 draft(Crosby draft) There was no season (Thank you Mr. Bettman) and no way to position teams so the only way was to have ALL 30 teams in an even lottery for position. By doing so teams would not simply give up and play their best all the way through. We understand this simply won't happen especially in the current political climate where people want things for free from folks who achieve/work for it. Anyway recently we did hear another/new proposal that makes sense to us at Fauxrumors. Its not quite as good as our idea, but in the face of things its a good back plan and does reduce the chance of tanking teams every season.

4) In this plan teams would "win" points towards the top pick by winning games AFTER they have been eliminated from playoff contention. Yes, teams that got eliminated first would probably still get a top choice, but instead of watching the Edmonton Oilers, etc (again) go on a 6-10 game losing streak every March, we'd see the same Oilers putting forth a top effort to attain a better draft spot. It would also prevent teams striving for the post season to get an easy game. Those "bottom feeders" would put out as strong an effort in late March as they did in late October. Its a no brainer to implement this scenario as soon as possible. While it still rewards the lesser teams with better draft position it prevents the obvious annual collapse of the bottom 2-3 teams

Isosceles Triangle in Coaching Carrosel

1) In yet another bizzaro move in the realm of coaching changes, the Toronto Maple Leafs relived Ron Wilson of his coaching duties this past Friday. Now for the record we agree with the move. In our opinion (and we have stated it many times before) we don't think Wilson is a particularly effective head coach. He has a tendency to alienate his players and while he is usually prepared, he doesn't seem to get every thing out of his teams(s). This is what we wrote about Wilson last summer'" Has had 4 extended stops as an NHL head coach. Amassing an impressive regular season win totals that ranks him 7th all-time. However he is the epitome of an underachieving coach. His teams have missed the playoffs 9 times in 17 seasons behind the bench. In his 8 post season appearances he made it past the 2nd round once; making the Finals with the Capitals in 98'. As one scout told us, " No one knows there X's and O's better, but he's hard to like. WE have to say that despite his W's, we don't either." This issue we have here is the timing. The 56-year-old Wilson signed a contract extension in December and will be paid through the end of next season. Wilson had a 130-135-45 record with the Maple Leafs. In 1,401 career games with Anaheim, Washington, San Jose and Toronto, he has a 648-561-91 record with 101 ties.

2) The next interesting twist is whom was Wilson's replacement. None other than Randy Carlyle taking over with 18 games left in the season. Burke and Carlyle were in charge of Anaheim when the Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007. Carlyle will be tasked with getting the Leafs into the postseason for the first time since 2004. For those keeping score at home (and you know you are) the Isosceles Triangle of coaching changes started in Washington on November 28th 2011 when Bruce Boudreau was canned by the Capitals. Two days later Randy Carlyle was fired by the Anaheim Ducks and promptly replaced by recently fired Caps bench boss Bruce Boudreau. Fast forward to Friday and Ron Wilson was fired and replaced by the former Duck coach Randy Carlyle. Keeping in mind that Wilson has coached BOTH the Anaheim Ducks (their first head coach) as well as the Washington Capitals coach who brought them to the only Finals appearance in 1998, thus completing our coaching isosceles triangle. (Or is it a rhombus)?

Week 21-Results

1) Week 21 is over. The results produced an OMG to Fauxrumors. Eight of nine road teams won last night!! You read that correctly, the road team won all but one contest yesterday. We can't recall that happening on a busy Saturday anytime recently. No excuses, but comeon'!! For the day/night understandably we didn't fare well, going 2-7! We even F'ed our Lock of the Week. Our overall record is now 140-110 or a .560 winning %. Our locks record falls to 17-4. We will be back next Saturday for week 22 when 11 games are up for grabs as we attempt to get back on winning ways!

2) Look for a couple of upcoming posts this week. One concerns the recent firing of Ron Wilson and the curious circular(or other shape?) movement of coaches this season. Additionally loo for another post where we will have another take on one of our pet-peeves, the rewarding of losing!

Week 21 Picks

1) Its lucky week 21 in the NHL today. There are 9 games on the slate today/night where we take our season-long record of 138-103 or a .573 winning %, hoping to improve over last weeks showing

NY Islanders at Boston: Bruins

Toronto at Montreal: Habitants

Tampa Bay at Carolina: Hurricanes (Lock of the Week)

Nashville at Florida: Predators

Columbus at Phoenix: Coyotes

Pittsburgh at Colorado: Avalanche

Buffalo at Vancouver: Canucks

Anaheim at Los Angeles: Kings

St. Louis at San Jose: Sharks

Bad Blood?!?

1) This is clearly what is happening in Columbus. To review for folks not up to speed on the issue. Rick Nash the captain, and face of the Columbus Blue Jackets franchise (contrary to Howson's assertion) was approached BY THE TEAM last fall about possibly waiving his No Movement Clause (NMC) in his contract to facilitate a possible trade. As regular readers recall we at Fauxrumors were FIRST to break the story that Nash was being shopped as early as last November http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2011/11/blue-jackets-looking-to-make-big-move.html. Nash consented, but gave a limited list of teams he'd agree to be traded to. Fast forward to the middle of this month when Howson had a deal in principal to obtain LA Kings star defensemen Drew Doughty along with Penner and back up goalie Bernier among others (we wrote about this earlier this month)

2) The problem is that Los Angeles was NOT among the teams that Nash had on his list. When Howson approach Nash's agent he/his client did not give the team permission and this pissed off Howson greatly. Eventually they did manage to iron out a deal with LA (Carter to Kings), but not the one Howson originally wanted. Additionally the franchise, once the news that their star was being shopped was out AND they didn't have a return (yet) on their player, needed to avert a PR nightmare (especially when season ticket renewals just went out!) So Scott Howson made Nash out to be the bad guy to cover his buttocks. Stating that it was Nash who requested to be traded. A bold face lie to be sure. Thus making an already uncomfortable situation into a nearly intolerable one. Nash has the remainder of the season with the Jackets to get through.

3) Undoubtedly he WILL get traded this summer, but by making this into a huge media circus Scott Howson has not only alienated his star attraction (FORCING A TRADE) making an enemy of Nash and in the process probably diminished any trade return he might have otherwise received. Much like the Heatley/Ottawa fiasco of a coupe of years ago when GM Murrray publicly outed Heatley's refusal to go to Edmonton and then was forced to trade the disgruntled winger, Howson has done much the same by making this matter a publicly known spat. No doubt Nash will be calling the shots and deciding where he goes and Howson (assuming he isn't fired for incompetence) will have to take less than he might have recieved. Bad blood indeed!

Week 20 Results

1) Week 20 is in the books. we had a disappointing evening going 5-6 on the day/night. After last weeks great results we came crashing back to earth. For the season we are now 138-103 or a .573 winning %. The only good news is we got our Lock of the week to bring that stat to 17-3.

2) We will be back at this again next Saturday when 9 games will be played. Ofcourse the deadline is approaching but from what we have heard it probably won't be all that active. In fact it might be a down right snoozer of a day disappointing many fans expecting big deals to propel their teams. As many of our sources tell us to many teams are looking so prices are "exorbitant". If anything is close and we hear about it we will pass it along. As always, keep it here for all the latest!

Week 20 Picks

1) Its week 20 in the NHL. The last weekend before Mondays anticipated Trade Deadline. We try to continue last weeks impressive stats and bring our season total of 133-97, or a .578 winning %.

Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh


St. Louis at Winnipeg: Jets


Phoenix at Edmonton:Coyotes


Washington at Toronto: Maple Leafs


Boston at Ottawa: Senators


Buffalo at NY Rangers: Rangers (Lock of the week)


Florida at Carolina: Hurricanes


Colorado at Detroit: Red Wings


Chicago at Los Angeles: Kings


San Jose at Nashville:Preditors


Philadelphia at Calgary: Flames